[Update] The Final Fantasy VII Rebirth mod which significantly improved lighting is no longer available on Nexus Mods. Hopefully it will become available again at some point.
[Original Story] A new Final Fantasy VII Rebirth mod now available for download introduces ray-traced global illumination and significantly improves lighting, but with a barrier of entry.
The FF7 Rebirth RTGI Remake-Grading ReShade preset, now available on Nexus Mods, addresses what is possibly one of the game's most glaring issues, the lighting, which makes the image look washed out and is a considerable step down from Final Fantasy VII Remake's lighting. The aim of the preset created by ShinObi12 is to bring the contrast and tone closer to that of Remake, which was used as a reference, and tame the adaption to feel more natural while adding RT bounce lighting. Judging from the comparison screenshot, the preset definitely achieves what it sets out to do, giving the game a more natural look in both indoor and outdoor locations.
Unfortunately, this ReShade preset is not exactly available for free, as it requires Pascal Gilcher's iMMERSE Pro shader, which can be downloaded by subscribing to the developer's Patreon Ray Tracers tier. On the other hand, the cost of the subscription is only $5, which is definitely worth the visual improvements the shader can bring to a lot of games both old and new.
Despite some issues besides the downgraded lighting system over Remake, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is doing great on PC, as the game was the best-selling game on Steam for the week ending January 25th. The game's success is totally deserved, as it is an excellent continuation of the series, as highlighted by Kai in his review of the PlayStation 5 version.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is now available on PC and PlayStation 5 worldwide.
